


Laugh Lines

by Star55



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-17 16:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star55/pseuds/Star55
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he properly laughs is about six months after the majority of his family was burned alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laugh Lines

**Author's Note:**

> I had Derek Hale feels and this happened.

The first time he properly laughs is about six months after the majority of his family were burned alive. 

He and Laura are in Texas, just passing through, when some brute at the diner they are at decides to grab her ass as she walks passed him to get a bottle of ketchup to go with Derek’s fries. Laura punches him square in the face and the force is so hard that the guy ends up flying backwards, knocking over the table behind him, flattening it to the ground. 

Derek can’t help the peals of laughter that slip from his lips at both the look on the guy’s face and the fact that Laura sits back down at the table with Derek and hands him the ketchup like nothing had even happened.

Laura smirks at him and they finish their dinner in peace.

They leave town that night, travelling on foot. They had been walking for about an hour when Derek realises that he laughed for the first time since they had left Beacon Hills.

Laura holds him through his panic attack, her voice calm and reassuring. She doesn’t mock him, she doesn’t scold him for being weak and she doesn’t use her Alpha powers to get Derek to calm down. She’s just his big sister, helping him through a moment of panic.

They find a place to sleep for the night and it’s Laura’s strong, supporting hand in his own that lets Derek sleep soundly, knowing that she’ll protect him if anything happens.

They travel across the country slowly. 

They meet other werewolf packs along the way but there’s only a few that will let them stay for a couple of nights at most, just to rejuvenate enough to continue their journey. They’re usually back out into the world before they overstay their welcome.

It takes time but they get to Chicago and Laura tells him that this is their new home. Derek agrees. He’s only seventeen years old by then and most teenagers would rebel but Derek is tired of moving about. He wants to feel some semblance of normalcy and stability again.

Laura tells him that he has to go back to school and get his diploma and Derek protests at first but eventually agrees. He’s missed so much that he has to repeat his junior year but he finds that he doesn’t mind.

He keeps to himself for the most part. He doesn’t join any clubs or sports or any after school activities even though a part of him longs to join the track team just so he can run without actually going anywhere.

Laura gets a job as a receptionist and even though it’s the 9-5 job she never wanted, it keeps a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Derek gets an after school job a few months after they’ve settled into Chicago, tired of letting his sister be the sole provider for their family of two. It’s just a job at Starbucks, but it pays well and the tips are usually good too.

It helps just a little, which is all they need sometimes.

It’s about a year after they arrive in Chicago that Derek meets him.

He was a customer at first. A sophomore in college. Technically only a year older than Derek who was finally a senior in high school. 

Cody has a nice smile, kind eyes and that alone should have been warning enough for Derek. He’s the first guy Derek sleeps with and he’s the first person that he watches Laura kill in front of him.

She refuses to let Derek do it – claiming that he’s too young and shouldn’t be burdened with someone’s blood on his hands. 

It still haunts his dreams.

They move again after Cody’s death. He had been a werewolf hunter and his death had brought more hunters to Chicago.

They cross the border into Canada and they find a pack who accepts them with open arms. It’s almost unheard of, especially since Laura is an Alpha but they’re and older pack and are more welcoming than Derek has ever known werewolves to be.

Laura finds work quickly and Derek finally finishes high school via correspondence. It’s not perfect but they make do. 

It’s odd being around a pack again, even if it’s a small one. It’s not their pack but it’s nice to run with others during the full moons.

Derek turns nineteen and gets a job in a bar. He’s broody enough that he keeps people in line and sexy enough (according to the owner) that he keeps the ladies and guys buying drinks all night in hopes just to have him serve them or talk to them.

It isn’t until he’s sitting with Laura one night, after the full moon, that he realises he hasn’t laughed since that night in Texas. 

Laura says she’s worried about him but Derek insists that he’s fine.

They both know it’s a lie. 

They’re both barely coping most days and they know they really only have each other. No matter how nice the pack they’re staying with is. Laura is an alpha and she’ll want to start a family of her own soon enough and they’ll no longer be welcome. 

They’re in Canada for eighteen months before they make the move to New York. 

The first night in their shamble of an apartment, the tap in the sink of the bathroom decides to give into the pressure of Laura’s hand and sprays her in the face. She squeals and Derek rushes in to see what the noise was and he finds her standing in the middle of the bathroom, sopping wet and looking like a drowned rat. 

Derek laughs.

She tackles him to the ground, laughing as well. 

“This is nice,” Laura says and Derek realises how much he misses it.

Things are easier for them after that. Things aren’t magically better but it’s a little easier to smile. Things don’t seem so bleak.

Derek can’t get another job at a bar as the legal age is different in the US but he manages to get a job on a construction site purely because he can lift heavy objects and works solidly.

He manages to convince Laura to take a night class or two at their local community college so she can finally get a degree in something and have a proper career. 

She meets a guy and Derek can see her falling in love with him faster than he thinks is healthy but he isn’t going to tell her what to do. He knows she’s craving a family and he just hopes that this Zach guy is open minded enough to know what he’s getting himself into.

Zach fits in well with them, which is surprising to Derek. He didn’t think that he’d ever seen anyone adapt so quickly to knowing that his girlfriend was a werewolf.

They get married six months later and Derek hates that he’s living with them still – they’re newlyweds, they should be allowed their time to just be together. 

He moves out, into a studio apartment that’s only a block away from Laura’s own. She doesn’t like it at first but Derek tells her it’s for the best. He doesn’t want to hear his sister having sex with Zach more than Laura wants him to hear that. She concedes and tells him that he has to see her at least three times a week just so she knows he’s okay. Derek happily agrees to the terms because his sister is the happiest he’s ever seen her and he wants to keep her that way.

He wonders if he’ll ever be as happy.

Zach’s sister asks him and Laura to baby-sit one night and Derek goes over to meet his brother in law’s niece. She’s adorable and he can practically hear Laura’s biological clock ringing like a loud alarm, telling her it’s time that she had a baby. 

Tessa is three years old and to Derek she’s a handful but Laura can keep up with her like he knew she would be able to. Laura just looks so at peace with everything in her life and Derek can’t help but picture her with a big family of her own. He expects that she won’t be happy with one child and his suspicions are confirmed when he accidentally overhears Laura telling Tessa that she wants at least four children while she gives her a bath.

Tessa falls asleep in Laura’s arms, her little hand curled against Laura’s cheek and Derek’s breath catches in his throat at the sight. 

“You’re going to be a great mom,” he tells her, pressing a kiss to her cheek before leaving for the night.

The next time he laughs, it comes so naturally that Derek’s surprised at himself. He knows he hasn’t been as morose as he had been in previous years but he still hasn’t managed to get back to laughing easily without feeling like it’s betraying his family somehow to be happy. 

He meets a girl at a bar. He’s barely legal and she’s got a wicked sense of humour that he had never experienced before. They only spend the night together but Derek feels happier than he has in a long time. His entire being feels lighter and even Laura comments on it.

He thinks maybe things are finally going to stop hurting so much and he can actually have a normal life.

“We’re trying for a baby,” Laura tells him and Derek isn’t even remotely surprised. He knew it was inevitable and he finds himself excited at the prospect of being an uncle. It’s not a matter of if it will happen but when. 

Laura’s more than ready and she’s a good Alpha. 

She says she’s going to give Zach the bite shortly after their one year anniversary. Derek knows that it’s been a topic discussed at length between them but Laura wants to make sure their baby is a werewolf too so she can keep the Hale line going. 

Shortly before their first anniversary, Laura gets a call that turns her white. Derek is with her when she gets it and tries to pass it off as nothing but Derek can hear the rise in her heartbeat and the call is over before he can focus his hearing on the conversation.

“I have to go away for a few days,” she says and Derek doesn’t like where this is going. “Just to Beacon Hills. The nurses want to know if we still want to keep Uncle Peter in the hospital or if we want to bring him back here with us. I won’t be more than a few days, little brother, I promise.”

Derek nods. 

Laura and Zach fly out the next day and Derek can’t help the feeling of dread settling in the pit of his stomach.

He doesn’t hear from her for a few days and just knows that there is something wrong. He flies across the country, back to Beacon Hills, back to the place he wanted to avoid for the rest of his life. 

His sister is murdered. Zach first but that’s put down to a suicide, as he’s found floating face down in the river that is near the burned out shell of the old Hale family home.

Just like that, Derek’s life is crumbling around him.

His entire being hurts. He cries for his sister. Cries for her husband and cries for the just formed foetus in her womb. 

It takes a long time for him to even crack a smile and even then it’s at someone else’s expense. He can see the incredulous look on Scott’s face as Erica gets into the car next to him. He thrills on it. 

He knows it’s insane to build a pack from teenagers but he needs werewolves that will be loyal to him and as the Alpha, he needs a pack fast. 

It isn’t the way Laura would have wanted it but he can’t think about that anymore. He can’t think of Laura and Zach. Can’t think of the family they were creating together. Can’t think of their old family, who had all died at Kate Argent’s hand. He can’t.

Somehow, without him even realising it, these teenagers worm their way into his heart. It’s not what he wanted, of course, he just needed the power that came with being an Alpha. He needed it to protect himself so he wouldn’t end up like every other member of the Hale family.

He finds himself caring for the betas more than he ever realised he would and soon, they become his new family, albeit broken but it’s his. 

It takes time for them all to trust each other, especially after everything they go through together but strange enough, it binds them closer. Makes them stronger in ways Derek never imagined. 

The first time he catches the scent of lust, there are too many of them around to know who it was. It’s more than likely Scott pining after Allison but it smells different than it normally does.

He doesn’t pay it any mind and the months go on before he realises that the lust is directed towards _him_.

He tries to pay more attention to it when he realises what it is and what it means. 

It’s not Erica, the only lust she has is for Boyd and they’re quite happy together. It isn’t Isaac, who Derek thought it could be for a few weeks but the second he sees Isaac with Danny, he knows he’s definitely looking in the wrong place. 

He should have realised it was Stiles long before Stiles’ lips were pressed against his own. 

The kiss is like them, messy, complicated and more than a little rough. 

Stiles is the one who initiates it, which catches Derek by surprise. 

It opens up a floodgate of feelings Derek never knew he had. Stiles still drives him crazier than anyone he’s ever met – more than Laura when he was shaving in the bathroom and she wanted to get ready for work, pounding on the door with her fist before just snapping the handle to enter the bathroom, shoving him away from the sink forcibly.

Stiles fills a hole in Derek’s heart that he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to let anyone into. He’s reluctant at first – he doesn’t want to lose someone else he loves and it’s with that thought that Derek knows he’s already in too deep.

Stiles is a presence in his life that he never wants to get rid of. 

His humour and sarcasm rivals that of the lady he met in a bar in New York shortly after his twenty first birthday. 

Stiles’ smile is the first thing Derek sees when he wakes up and it’s not something Derek ever thought he would ever see let alone experience. Stiles’ lips are gentle on his own as he presses a kiss into them, whispering good morning before getting out of bed. 

He leaves the bedroom and a few moments later, Derek can smell the telltale scents of Stiles making breakfast.

He makes his way from the room, and pinches a piece of bacon from the pan before Stiles can serve it. His fingers sting a little with the burn of picking up the hot piece of food but Stiles just pokes him in the side and tells him that’s what he gets.

The rest of the pack must be able to smell Stiles’ cooking because within minutes, their house is filled with every member of the pack, all reaching for food that Stiles has put out on the table. 

Derek can’t help but smile as he takes in the atmosphere. Everyone is calm and mostly hungry as they stuff their faces with food. He feels a sense of completeness as he watches everyone. 

This is his pack and it may be missing a few key people but he thinks that he’s doing a good job with the ones he has.

Stiles plops down in the seat next to him and shovels as much scrambled eggs into his mouth as he can, clearly trying to inhale them. He chokes and splutters, reaching for a glass of juice and Derek can’t help but laugh. 

Stiles’ cheeks are red, both from embarrassment and the lack of oxygen but Derek keeps laughing. 

This is his family. This is his life and the man he plans to spend the rest of his life with still doesn’t understand the concept of taking his time when eating. Granted it doesn’t help when there are a pack of hungry werewolves who like to snatch things from other people’s plates when they’re not looking but Stiles has always been like that.

Derek smiles broadly and for the first time, he doesn’t feel guilty for being happy.

“Careful, Derek,” Stiles says, amusement clear in his voice. “If you don’t stop, you’ll get laugh lines.”

Derek can’t find it in himself to think that it’s a bad thing.


End file.
